b'Z BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Sept.,. 



tensive effort of national, state and county organizations 

 Avorking co-operatively, there has been a great campaign for 

 more and better live stock. ^lost devoutly must we hope 

 that as a result of these efforts our live stock is better in 

 quality, for certainly there is no more than in years past. 

 Our first big piece of work in the present crisis of the in- 

 dustry, must be to find the causes of the failure of this cam- 

 paign. Live stock has decreased. — A\^hy? 



Milk Prices Have Been Low. 



Possibly one great cause of failure has been the low price 

 of milk. I am ready to admit this, and state, furthermore, 

 that during the last twenty years producers of market milk 

 have had to live by saving rather than to live by making. 

 Producers have barely made expenses and have "gotten by'^ 

 only through boarding themselves and paying for the privi- 

 lege. A contributory factor may have been waste in dis- 

 tribution. We all recognize that there is this great waste,. 

 and that it must be eliminated. At the same time, the saving 

 of one or two cents per quart in the cost of delivering milk 

 to the consumer wall not make the dairy industry profitable 

 on the majority of the hill farms in Connecticut, ]\Iassachu- 

 setts, ]\Iaine, Vermont and New Hampshire. In other w^ords,. 

 w^e have still to look for the real cause of our failure. 



Another possible cause may be the dog nuisance, and its 

 eft'ect in discouraging farmers in the keeping of sheep. Per- 

 sonally, I believe this damage has been much over-rated. I 

 think that the dog nuisance has developed because the sheep 

 industry has declined, rather than the reverse. Even so, if 

 at the present time the prevalence of the mongrel cur prevents 

 farmers from engaging in sheep raising, we are justified in 

 making every effort to secure better and more easily enforced 

 law^s. Biit that this alone will bring back the industry no 

 man can say. 



Another possible cause, in another branch of the live stock 

 industry, is the prevalence of hog cholera, uncontrolled. This 

 may have stopped the increase in hogs. Certainly when a 

 farmer has his herd w^ped out by cholera he has cause for 

 discouragement and is very slow in the rebuilding and re- 

 placing. There is at present, however, no great necessity- 



